Audit data shows fall in adult heart surgery death rates

The number of UK adult heart patients dying in hospital has fallen by more than 20% in the last ten years, according to the latest National Adult Cardiac Surgery Audit (NACSA) data published today.

The audit found that mortality rates fell to 2.98% nationally in the ten years to 2012/13 - despite the fact that heart surgeons increasingly take on more difficult cases.

Innovative reporting gives interactive access to the NACSA data. Reporting tools are designed to help doctors improve the quality of heart surgery, reassure patients that standards of care are being monitored and improved, as well as helping them make informed choices about their treatment.

This includes publishing results for individual hospitals and consultant surgeons, which has been done for UK adult heart surgery since 2005. This was emulated by nine other medical specialties in 2013 as part of the NHS England Consultant Outcomes Publication programme, which is expanding to include 13 clinical areas in 2014.

The suite of online resources is based on data that covers all NHS heart surgery in the UK up to 31 March 2013, and has been thoroughly checked for accuracy by each hospital.

Consultant Outcomes Publication

www.scts.org/patients shows the number and type of heart operations each consultant and
hospital is carrying out, as well as the associated mortality rate. Results
are searchable by an interactive map, name or, for consultant, GMC code. For
2014 this incorporates recommendations from the Healthcare Quality Improvement
Partnership (HQIP) COP Style Guide for National Clinical Audits.

SCTS iData app

This web based and Apple iOS app is designed
to support patient and clinical decision making. It allows NACSA to be queried
by placing filters on five years’ worth of data, generating a tailor-made
report on up-to-date operations. It can be downloaded to Apple devices by
searching ‘SCTS iData’ or accessed on www.idata.scts.org.

Blue Book Online

www.bluebook.scts.org shows interactive analysis of up-to-date procedure numbers and data
completeness for UK heart surgery hospitals, along with national trends over
time for mortality and operative risk.